LOUISVILLE, Ky. - All things being equal, Miss Seffens is probably the best horse in the Friday feature at Churchill Downs.
But one key variable may make things unequal: The $61,100, five-furlong race is scheduled for the turf course, a surface for which Island Echo has displayed an extraordinary fondness.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The seventh race on Friday at Hollywood Park may produce a few starters for the $500,000 Californian Stakes on June 15.
Futural, who was second in the 2001 Californian, meets a field that includes the graded stakes winners Momentum and Out of Mind; Pie n Burger, an allowance winner; and Truly a Judge, one of the top claims of 2001 in California.
Run over 1 1/16 miles, the race features two older horses trained by Craig Dollase - Futural and Momentum - who are looking to rebound from recent losses.
AUBURN, Wash. - Live racing could return to Spokane's Playfair Race Course in 2003 as a result of the sale of the track to Eric Nelson, a Las Vegas real estate broker.
Nelson, who told the Washington Horse Racing Commission of his interest in Playfair at a meeting in April, owns and operates Wyoming Downs and four card rooms in Washington, including two in Kennewick. He purchased the historic track from Jack Pring, whose Appleway Leasing Corp. has owned Playfair since 1981.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Jockey Greta Kuntzweiler is expected to be out of action about three months after having suffered a compressed vertebra in a Tuesday morning spill during training hours at Churchill Downs.
Kuntzweiler, 26, was aboard a Greg Foley-trained horse who was pulling up from a gallop when the horse suddenly stumbled and fell, throwing her. Both horse and rider soon got to their feet and appeared okay, but Kuntzweiler's agent, John Herbstreit, convinced her to go to nearby Caritas Medical Center for an evaluation.
Santa Anita will retroactively pay an estimated $1 million to owners who participated in overnight races at the recently concluded winter-spring meeting after purse revenue from a variety of sources, including phone and Internet betting, was higher than projected.
A final figure will not be available until early June, according to Mike Harlow, the track's racing secretary.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Dream Launcher, fresh off a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Eclipse Handicap, will be a short price in Friday's featured fourth race, a $100,000 optional claimer.
Dream Launcher, a 4-year-old owned and trained by Audre Cappuccitti, could be the lone speed in the 1 1/16-mile race. He made an impact in the second start of his career last spring, finishing a close second as a maiden here in the six-furlong Woodstock Stakes.
CALGARY, Alberta - Trainer Don Gilkyson provided the exactor in Monday's Ken Pearson Memorial at Stampede Park, the second time he has turned the trick in a filly and mare stakes at this meet.
This time the winner was Slewability ($30.60), avenging her defeat to stablemate Little Lolitta in the M.R. Jenkins Memorial two weeks earlier.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Stakes winner Sir Alfred makes his 4-year-old debut in Friday's feature race at Bay Meadows.
He will face four rivals in an $80,000 optional claimer at one mile on the main track. Among those he'll face is Hoovergetthekeys, who raced against him five times last year.
Sir Alfred hasn't raced since finishing third in an allowance race at Golden Gate Fields on Dec. 16.
"We didn't want to over-race him as a 3-year-old," trainer Chuck Jenda's assistant Bill Patterson said.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The presence of Grade 1 winners Astra and Starine has not limited the field for Monday's $500,000 Gamely Breeders' Cup Handicap at Hollywood Park.
As of Wednesday, seven fillies and mares were probable for the Gamely, run over 1 1/8 miles on turf. All are stakes winners, with victories ranging in prestige from the 2000 Western Australian Derby (won by Old Money) to the Miss America Handicap at Bay Meadows (won by Crazy Ensign last month).